Coordinatess:
40°43′N
19°28′E
/ 40.717°N
19.467°E / 40.717;
19.467
Apollonia (Greek:
Aπολλωνία κατ' Επίδαμνον or Απολλωνία
προς Επιδάμνω Apollonia kat' Epidmanon or Apollonia pros
Epidamno,
Albanian: Apolonia or Apollonia),
was an ancient Greek city and colony in southern
Illyria,
now modern-day
Albania,
located on the right bank of the
Aous river;
its ruins are situated in the
Fier region,
near the village of Pojani. It was founded in 588 BCE by
Greek[1]
colonists from Kerkyra (Corfu)
and Corinth,
and was perhaps the most important of the several classical towns known as
Apollonia (Απολλωνία).
Temple Ruins
(Monument of Agonothetes)
The site was already used by Corinthian traders and the
Taulantii, a cluster of Illyrian tribes, who remained closely involved
with the settlement for centuries and lived alongside[2]
the Greek colonists. The city was said to have originally been named
Gylakeia after Gylax, its founder[3],
but the name was later changed to honor the god
Apollo.
Aristotle
considered Apollonia an important[4]
example of an
oligarchic system, as the descendants of the Greek colonists controlled
the city and prevailed over a large
serf population of mostly Illyrian origin. The city grew rich on the
slave trade and local agriculture, as well as its large harbour, said to
have been able to hold a hundred ships at a time. The remains of a late
sixth-century temple, located just outside the city, were reported in 2006;
it is only the fifth known Hellenic temple found in present-day Albania.[5]Apollonia,
like
Dyrrachium further north, was an important port on the Illyrian coast as
the most convenient link between Brundusium and northern Greece, and as one
of the western starting points of the
Via
Egnatia leading east to
Thessaloniki and
Byzantium
in Thrace.
It had its own mint, stamping coins that have been found as far away as the
basin of the
Danube.
The city was for a time included among the dominions of
Pyrrhus of Epirus. In 229 BC it came under the control of the
Roman Republic, to which it was firmly loyal; it was rewarded in 168 BC
with booty seized from
Gentius, the defeated king of Illyria. In 148 BC Apollonia became part
of the
Roman province of Macedonia,specifically of
Epirus Nova. In the civil war between
Pompey and
Julius Caesar it supported the latter, but fell to
Marcus Iunius Brutus in 48 BC. The later Roman emperor
Augustus studied in Apollonia in 44 BC under the tutelage of Athenodorus
of Tarsus; it was there that he received news of Caesar's murder.
Apollonia flourished under Roman rule and was noted by
Cicero in
his
Philippics as magna urbs et gravis, a great and important
city. Its decline began in the 3rd century AD, when an earthquake changed
the path of the
Vjosa river, causing the harbour to silt up and the inland area to
become a
malaria-ridden swamp.
Christianity was established in the city at an early stage, and bishops
from Apollonia were present during the
First Council of Ephesus (431) and the
Council of Chalcedon (451). However, the city became increasingly
uninhabitable as the inland swamp expanded and the nearby settlement of
Avlona (modern-day Vlore) became dominant. By the end of antiquity the
city was largely depopulated, hosting a small Christian community which
built on a hill which probably is part of the site of the old city the 13th
century Monastery and Church of Panagia -Shën Mëri in Albanian- (the
Saint Mary).It was part of
Epirus Nova[6].
The city seems to have sunk with the rise of Vlora. It
was "rediscovered" by European classicists in the 18th century, though it
was not until the
Austrian
occupation of 1916–1918 that the site was investigated by archaeologists.
Their work was continued by a French team between 1924–1938. Parts of the
site were damaged during the
Second World War. After the war, an Albanian team undertook further work
from 1948 onwards, although much of the site remains unexcavated to this
day. Some of the team's archeological discoveries are on display within the
monastery, and other artefacts from Apollonia are in the capital
Tirana.
Unfortunately, during the anarchy that followed the collapse of the
communist regime in 1990, the archeological collection was plundered.
The ruins were also frequently dug up by plunderers for relics to be sold to
collectors abroad.